Driving-Wedge

Driving home from Atlanta last night, at around midnight,there are large stretches of road with a speed limit of around 65. The journey itself is around 70 miles and it can take awhile to get back to Athens (simple math would say 1.8 hours, but there are stoplights as well).

There are not any street lights, it is fairly rural, and there is the temptation to go a little above the requested mph to make better time. Given that both Bri and Linds were exhausted, and I wanted to get them as home asap, I had an additional incentive to push the limit a tad. Answer: Driving-Wedge.

That sounds like a golf club, but in fact it is a formation for a group of cars to form while they all push the boundaries of the "Speed Limit". Strength in numbers perhaps, extra highlights and eyes on the horizon for possible Five-O, and the possibility that the highway patrol will either ignore us or only pull over one person are compelling reasons to be a part of a Driving-Wedge. I have been in them before, generally in groups of 3 or 4, but last night we had a unique blend. 

I found an ideal Driving-Wedge and we all held a fairly regular "W" formation on a two lane highway, with three cars in one lane and two in the adjacent lane, each of them staggered. There were the occasional slow drivers that we would approach/pass and the two right laners, or sadly sometimes the three left laners would have to slide over and the formation would realign (I will skip the diatribe of slow drivers in the left lane) , with different positions being taken by those cars in the suitable positions, but overall the wedge held. 

The "W" was solid for about 20 miles or so but one car eventually peeled off and we took a trapezoid shape, which changed positions as we went along, and as some cars pushed to the front to lead the wedge (a good Driving-Wedge always needs a shifting pole position, to test both each driver's commitments to the wedge and see if they are willing to pace the group); overall, it held firm for a solid 50 miles.  

Without reporting my exact speed to avoid incriminating myself, we made record time. I wish I could have contacted those other drivers to give a digital high five via text, seen here as a  IIII_ or possibly a (5)_, or a real high five, but we all knew it was a well executed D-W and I appreciated their willingness to stick with it. Well done fellow I-316ers (aka University Parkwayers), particularly my Silver XTerra wingman. 

Nice work, and I hope to see you next time I am traveling to/from Athens.